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The Burden of Parenthood
The Burden of Parenthood is Chapter 5 of Bittersweet Candy Bowl. This chapter was redrawn in 2011 for Volume One. The original 2006 version is available from the extras area on the main website. Synopsis The chapter begins inside the classroom with the topic being sexual education. The teacher appears disgruntled throughout it and threatens the kids that having sex at thirteen increases your rate of catching sexually transmitted diseases, and the only true contraception is abstinence until marriage, or removal of the sex organs. Towards the end of the lecture, Yashy loudly questions Mike if he's been having Lucy receive abortions every day. The outburst earning Mike a detention from the teacher, which lasts 'forever'. Towards the end of the lesson the teacher begins distributing mechanical babies to the class to optimize the illusion of raising a child themselves, or in her words; "to optimize the illusion of being idiot teenage screw-ups." Yashy braces happily as the teacher reads out the list of sorted couples expecting to hear her mother paired up with Mike, but to her dismay finds Mike instead paired up with Daisy. Lucy learns she's been paired up with Paulo who has taken no time celebrating himself by taking over Mikes seat and he greets her while keeping Mike pushed away. At the end of the class the kids are outside getting used to their mechanical children. Lucy holds hers up finding them cute with their customizable faces, but Yashy reciprocates poorly to the idea of being replaced so easily. Daisy appears showing Mike their child and asks for name suggestions, settling on Algeria while Yashy provides less than copious names. Mike and Lucy however are put off by her doll's shocking face, which Daisy is indifferent to. Paulo appears next to Lucy thrilled with the idea of being paired up and suggests reenacting life of a married couple, Lucy responds by asking for a divorce. As Lucy is about to walk away, Paulo flips her around and tells her they can make it work, before being handed the baby and told to look after it. Paulo looks over it and remarks how retarded it looks, drawing a frustrated sigh from Lucy. Lucy helps Paulo with holding their baby, Lucy having some experience while looking after her pets. Daisy remarks how precious they both work together before turning to Mike and asking why he doesn't do the same, to where he responds the doll freaks him out. Meanwhile Daisy gives their doll to Paulo who comes to like it. Mike and Lucy ditch the pair. On the following Monday Yashy discovers Mike and Paulo had switched places, with Lucy filling out the log book as if she were still with Paulo. Meanwhile Paulo talks to David about how he cant understand how he saw a part of himself in Daisy's doll. David asks if that's why he brought it to school in a baby carriage next to him, which Paulo is embarrassed about. The teacher takes Paulo's doll from the carriage and reads the results before telling Paulo that he achieved the best result in the class, but cannot understand why he has Mike's doll. Mike ingeniously suggests they divorced each other and took custody over each other's children, netting extra credit points by the teacher for making it more realistic. As the class ends Paulo looks back once more to the mechanical baby, letting him know he'll miss him. Lucy calls him a wuss from the background.